Thursday, February 8, 2018

The Kitchen Island

Before we decided to add on the new kitchen, and use the old kitchen as a mudroom/office, we were not going to have an island with seating as I thought everyone could sit at the table at the end of the kitchen. In yet another good demonstration as to why it's a good idea to live in a space before renovating, we discovered during the year before the kitchen was complete that it wasn't a comfortable nor inviting space to sit. In fact, I found that I was most often alone in the kitchen while cooking since no one tended to linger.

From the moment we bought the house, whether in the new kitchen or the old kitchen, I always envisioned an island that looked like a table. In fact, my original inspiration was the kitchen work table in Downton Abby. When Gretchen and I were in England this past summer I snapped this picture that we used for reference quite a bit.

Now, the kitchen is back to being a hang out spot. The island is made for gathering round and we have also found that both children choose to sit and do their work more often in the kitchen instead of their rooms!

P.S. We made the island slightly shorter than counter height as I'm on the short side and it's more comfortable lower for me (we compromised and meet in the middle of table and counter height). If you look closely at the chairs you will notice that one is taller than the others. When I snapped this photo, Bryce hadn't finished cutting down the legs of the chairs as our first attempt was still too tall!